Blog | West Acton Friends

Letters to The Beacon

Dear Editor, In 2009, the Town proposed building sewers for the Spencer-Tuttle-Flint neighborhood (STF), in spite of a 2008 report by the . Michael Geis Previous member of WANT Committee Acton Resident Dear Editor, As a resident of the proposed West Acton sewer district, I will be directly and detrimentally affected by this project. The West Acton Sewer Advisory Committee offers no persuasive reason why this astronomically expensive project must go forward now and in this nei

Inaccurate Septic Failure Map from Woodard & Curran

The following map was distributed to homeowners at a West Acton Sewer Committee meeting: This map was distributed by Joseph Shea, Senior ...

Groundwater and Proximity to Fort Pond Brook

On October 22, 2019, the Town sent a letter to West Acton residents stating that their neighborhood was a needs/priority area for sewers ...

Misleading Soil Quality Map from Woodard & Curran

Is there anything unusual about the soil in West Acton? A map shown by Joseph Shea, Senior Vice President, and Jack Troidl, Project Manag...

Septic Systems: Better for the Environment, for Everyone

Septic systems have many advantages. First, they allow drinking water drawn from Acton's ground water to return to the local watershed. W...

Origin of the "Needs Area"

In 2002, the Town hired sewer company Woodard & Curran to do a study identifying wastewater solutions for Acton. Unfortunately, this arra...

Low-Pressure Sewers: Unreliable and Expensive

In the proposed West Acton Sewer District, two different types of sewer would be used. Most houses would be served by gravity sewer. In g...

Proposed Sewer District

The proposed sewer district would encompass approximately 200 properties in West Acton. The map below shows the proposed district. If you...

Septic vs. Sewer Cost Comparison

According to two of the most frequent septic installers in West Acton, ABC Cesspool and G. Nichols Construction, the average cost of sept...

Septic Fail Rate

Is the rate of septic system failure in West Acton higher or lower than average? To answer this question, we looked at Title V septic ins...

Water Quality

Measures of nitrates and fecal bacteria can indicate untreated septic discharge in surface and ground water. The plots below show these m...

Cost for Current Sewer Users

The usage fee for the South Acton sewer has risen 70% since its inception in 2002. This can be seen the plot below, which shows the usage...

Cost of Septic Systems in West Acton

Cost of Septic System Replacement According to ABC Cesspool and G. Nichols Construction, two of the most frequent septic installers in Ac...

Population Growth in Acton

How is Acton's population changing over time? As shown below, Acton is growing faster than any of its neighbors (source: U.S. Census): Ra...

How long do septic systems last?

Search for "septic system life span" on the Internet, and you will find wildly different estimates, some as low as 25 years. How long to ...

Sewer Overview

In 2002, the Town of Acton constructed a sewer in South Acton. Seven years later, in 2009, the Town proposed extending the sewer towards ...

Housing Density

Sewers tend to allow high-density building to an extent that would not be possible with septic systems. In fact, it even becomes profitab...

Does the new school need sewers?

The new Douglas/Gates school does not need sewers. In fact, the new school's on-site septic system was just approved by the Acton Board o...

Sewers and West Acton Businesses

The sewer betterment fee for a commercial property is based on the parcel's land area. Current estimates of betterment fees show that man...

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Friends of West Acton